Tamborine, from the Musical Instruments series (N82) for Duke brand cigarettes 1888

This small chromolithograph was created by W. Duke, Sons & Co., a major American tobacco company, as a promotional insert for their cigarettes. The image is part of a series depicting musical instruments, but it also reflects the exoticizing trends in late 19th-century advertising. Note how the woman is dressed in what was imagined to be vaguely 'ethnic' or 'oriental' garb. In this era, marketing frequently used imagery associated with foreign lands to add a sense of luxury or allure to everyday products. Tobacco companies, in particular, often relied on such associations, given tobacco’s origins in the Americas and its subsequent global trade. What is most fascinating is the transformation of cultural symbols into commodities. This card, aimed at consumers, encouraged the purchase of cigarettes by associating them with a romanticized version of global culture. To understand the power of such images, historians delve into the archives of advertising, studying company records, marketing strategies, and the social attitudes of the time. Through this research, we can better understand the complex interplay between commerce, culture, and representation.